TV preview: Laura Dern stars as a Californian recovering from a breakdown in Enlightened, Vanessa Engle focuses on couples in this week’s Money and there’s a sad but revealing look at behavioural problems in My Child’s Not Perfect.

Laura Dern stars as Amy Jellicoe in Enlightened (Picture: Sky)

Enlightened Sky Atlantic, 10pm

Episode one of a new HBO drama that sees a 40-year-old Californian have a breakdown in her soulless office, before a spell in rehab encourages her to start spouting the virtues of self-help books and meditation. In lesser hands, protagonist Amy Jellicoe could have been truly irritating but Laura Dern is a versatile actress, ably swinging from angry witch to do-gooding angel. Strong support, too, from Diane Ladd, Dernâs on-screen (and real-life) mum.

Money BBC2, 9pm

The strains of William Stevenson and Sylvia Moyâs It Takes Two kick off Vanessa Engleâs second foray into our complex relationship with money. This time, her focus is on couples. All sorts of different couples, living in all sorts of different circumstances (some good, some bad, some eco-friendly), up and down the country. As Engle remains the passive player while her subjects do the talking, what emerges is a snapshot of modern Britain that illuminates divisive financial obsessions â often to the surprise of partners.

The Nearlyweds BBC3, 9pm

The under 30s get divorced more than any other age group, so with that fact in mind, BBC3 have invited two couples in that age group who are planning to tie the knot to poke around in each otherâs private lives to see if they have any hope of going the distance. Cynical? Yes. Addictive? Very probably.

Hung Sky Atlantic, 10.35pm

HBOâs male prostitute drama begins its third series with âHappiness Consultantsâ Ray (Thomas Jane) and Tanya (Jane Adams) hoping to expand their orgasmic enterprise â with a Wellness Center For Women. Trouble is, they need a bank loan first â though people donât take much persuading when youâre hung like a horse. Hurrah!

My Childâs Not PerfectÂ ITV1, 9pm

First of a sad but revealing two-parter focusing on children with behavioural problems: one chatty six year old becomes inexplicably mute when she enters the school gates; a 16-year-old boy struggles with Touretteâs, brought on after a seizure, plus thereâs a ten-year-old who is often angry and âjust not rightâ, though professionals have struggled to diagnose whatâs wrong with him.Â Â

FILM CHOICE: 21 Grams Film4, 11.45pm

After he played around with interlocking stories in Amores Perros, director Alejandro González Iñárritu continued to toy with traditional structure for his English language debut about the before and after of a car accident. The non-linear narrative is clever stuff but arguably it detracts from the faultless acting by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro – and Iñárritu would reuse it to lesser effect in his next film Babel. In any case, the key moments here, including the crash itself, are direct, raw and powerful.